What did you do today?

[Nanno]

Yikes! I'm glad they got the horses out! That's too bad about the old barn.

I spent this afternoon wrangling goats. Apparently my goats have been wandering and then bringing themselves home before I notice they're missing. Well today they got caught! My neighbor's ranch hand came over today and informed me that my goats were at his place. He said they were in the road near the end of our driveway when he drove his goats by for their morning browse. My neighbors have 500 head of meat goats that they take around the ranch every morning to clear brush and weeds. This morning my goats got too close to them and the ranch Border Collie rounded mine up and put them in his herd (much to Daisy's dismay). Apparently his dog and Daisy got in a fight over the goats, so the goats panicked and ended up mingling into the larger herd. I was busy all morning and didn't notice them missing, and the ranch hand came over around 3:00 to inform us that my goats had made the rounds with his and were now in his goat pen. He further informed us that he's been getting calls from other neighbors about wandering goats, and that every report has been about ours, not his. One of these calls was from someone who lives almost a mile from our house! I wish he'd told me before now. Of course, I'd have had a hard time believing him since I've never noticed them missing!

So Phil and I got in the truck and headed down there to fetch our truants home. They were huddled in the corner as close to our property as they could get and Daisy was laying with them. I stood at the gate and called them and they came bounding down the hill looking very relieved. Apparently they did not enjoy mingling with the other herd. We got them all in the truck and brought them home. We've had a lot of rain lately and the neighbor's goat pen was knee-deep in mud. I'm not sure how healthy those goats are, so all my goats got their legs scrubbed clean in a bucket of bleach water as soon as we got them home.

Funny enough, Cuzco is the only goat that didn't wander. I'm not sure if he was napping in the shed when they left or if he brought himself home when he saw all those other goats. He doesn't like other goats very much. In fact, when I saw him hanging around by himself (a not uncommon occurrence), I invited him to spend the afternoon with me on the porch while I talked on the phone, so I can't blame Cuzco. Although, come to think of it, it's quite possible he told the others to "go play in the road" and then high tailed it back to enjoy some peace and quiet.

And here I've been telling everybody how nice it is to have goats because they don't wander.